Glass annealing lehr



' March 16, 1937.

III'JZ.

C. CONE GLASS ANNEALING LEHR Filed July 29, 1956 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Ca'mZZCon e ATTORNEY March 16, 1937.

C. CONE GLAS S ANNEALING LEHR 1936 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 I Filed July 29 [IVl/E/V TOR Carroll Con e fldzw/ fiTTORNEY March 16, 1937. c. CONE GLASSANNEALING' LEHR Filed July 29, 1936 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR fiarroZZCone 4 4 13M! ATTORNEY I amass crass nnnnnnrne innit lDarrolll (lone,near 'lloledo, @lmio, assignor to Stiril'ace Uombustion @oiporation,"ll'oledo, @hio, a corporation of New Work Application July 29, 1936,Serial No. 93,248

. 8 Claims.

This invention has "for its object to provide a glass annealing lehrwhich shall embody improvements in means for controlling thedistribution of heat in a lehr tunnel of such width as to acg commodatetwo wareconveyors arranged side i by side in the tunnel. y

In the accompanying drawings wherein the preferred form of the inventionis shown Fig. ibis a side elevation of the improved lehr,

to the view being on a greatly reduced scale as compared with the otherviews;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section'of that portion of the lehrwhere the heating zone may be said to end and the cooling zone to begin;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary cross sectional view along line 3-3 of Fig. 2; 1

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal vertical section of the .Fig. 6 is afragmentary horizontal section of the lehr, the view illustratingcertain features of the heating portion of the lehr.

Referring to Fig. 1, it will be seen that the lehr is a relatively longafiainthe first or left hand portion thereof being a heating zone andthe next succeeding portion being a cooling zone as is customaryincontinuous glass annealing lehrs.-

' In accordance with the present invention, the lehr tunnel'issumciently wide to accommodate two endless belt conveyors ill arrangedside by side in the tunnel. Both of these conveyors are of the open worktype, such as a wire mesh belt,

to permit the free passage of gases therethrough.

The belts are individually supported in any preierredjway as on rollersl I supported by a suitable framework including side irons it. The loweror return strand it of both belts may also extend through the lehrtunnel but for illustrative purposes such strand is shown as extendingoutside 0i the tunnel where it is supported in any preferred way as onrollers lll'.

It is a feature of the present invention that the two conveyors areindependently driven thus permitting two independently moving rows ofglassware to be independently'heat treatedas conditions demand. Theconveyors are independently driven in any preferred way as by individualdriving drums it at the waredischarge end of the lehr.

we Extending across the lehr tunnel some distance end to end relation.The front wall it of both chambers it is apertured to provide outletsopening into the lehr tunnel and the rear wall .l 'l' of both chambersii! is apertured to provide outlets opening into lines it individual tothe chambers ll.

Associated with each front chamber it is a pressure burner It andassociated with each-rear chamber ll is a pressure burner i 9. Theburners it for the front chambers it: are preferably of somewhat greatercapacity than the burners i9 for the'rear chambers H but otherwise allof the burners are of the same type, namely, a type adapted to burnexplosive gaseous mixture. As

. shown in Fig. 5, the preferred type of burner comprises a tubularcombustion chamber 20 of refractory material, the mixture beingdelivered to-said chamber by a nozzle M, the supply pipe for the latterbeing indicated at 22. Each of the supply pipes 22 for the severalburners is provided with a flow controlling means 23 which may betunnel. As shown in Fig. 6, each of "said chambers it and Ill preferablydecreases in width inwardly away from its burner end to insure uniformoutflow of gases throughout the extent of its apertured side wall.

The flues 2t whereinto the gases from the chambers ll discharge do notextend the full length of the lehr tunnel but only a sufiicient distanceaway from said chambers to provide for proper heat distribution atpoints remote from such chambers. As viewed in Fig. 1, the flues wouldterminate at about the point 215. The top-- side of each flue 2tcomprises metal plates El provided with openings 28 arranged in rowscrosswise of the flue and each row of openings is controlled by a damper29 secured to an operating rod it which extends outside of the lehrtunnel. As shown in Fig. 4, the damper 29 at the intake end of each flueM is so arranged as to cause the gases issuing from the underlying rowof outlets 28 to bedeflected back over the top of the chamber ll whereasthe other dampers are mounted to deflect the issuing gases in thegeneral direction of'the travel of. the conveyors iii.

The combustion gases supplied to the several chambers it and Ill areaugmented and tempered by gases withdrawn from the lehr tunnel by meansnext to be described. On top of the lehr at a point intermediate theends of the heating zone thereof is a housing 3| for a fan 32 on a driveshaft 33 coupled to a driving motor 34. The intake end 35 of the housingopens into the tunnel ,through the roof thereof either at a point midwaythe width of the roof as is shown or at a plurality of points at eitherside of the center line of the roof. The discharge end of the housing isindicated at 36 and it opens into a duct 31 which extends across the topof the lehr tunnel and then downwardly at each side thereof as sideducts 38 one of which opens into one set of front and rear chambers I6and I1 respectively and the other into the other set of similarchambers.

. the relative volumes of gases delivered to the right and left handbranches 38 of the duct may obviously be controlled as desired. There isalso provided in the lower end of each side duct 38 a vane 4| mounted ona turnable rod 42. By varying the angularity of the vane 4| the relativevolumes of gases delivered into the adjacent chambers l6 and H from theduct 38 may obviously be varied as desired.

It may at times be desirable to add outside air to the tunnel gasesentering the fan housing 3| and to this end the housing is provided witha valve controlled opening 43, the valve being shown as a disk 44adjustably mounted on a fixed rod 45.

The heating zone of the lehr tunnel is followed by a cooling zone whichmay be considered as beginning where the heating zone ends, namely, atthepoint 26 as viewed in Fig. 1. From that point on the ware isgradually cooled by introducing controlled volumes of cooling air intothe tunnel. The means for introducing the coolingair preferably takesthe form of a horizontally extending row of air discharge nozzles 47along each side of the tunnel, the nozzles at one side being preferablystaggered with respect to those at the other side and both rows ofnozzles being arranged below the ware conveyor l0. Each nozzle has itsown control valve 48 and its supply pipe 49 and is positioned todischarge into a throat 53 at the lower end of a vertical duct 5|, theupper end of which is in direct communication with the interior of thecooling zone as indicated at 52.

The downdraft produced in the various side ducts- 5| sets up circulationof the gases in the cooling zone as will be readily appreciated. By thusintroducing cooling air at a plurality of longitudinally spaced pointsand causing the air to circulate from the upper to the lower portion ofthe cooling zone, it will be readily appreciated that the rate ofcooling of the ware may be readily controlled within a wide range.

At longitudinally spaced intervals in the roof of the lehr tunnel arevents 53 through which tunnel gases may be expelled tothe atmosphere asconditions may demand, it being noted that each vent is provided with adamper 54.

The new and useful results obtained by a lehr embodying the improvementsherein shown and described will be readily apparent to those skilled inthe art but may be briefly considered as follows:

Since the two longitudinally extending flues 24 are supplied withheating gases independently of the two front chambers l6, it will bereadily appreciated that by regulating the amount of fuel supplied tothe burners l8 associated with the said chambers I6, the temperatureconditions at the ware intake end of the lehr tunnel may be controlledindependently of the temperature conditions resulting from the outflowof heating gases from the flues 24. Moreover, since the burners l8associated with said chambers are individually regulable, it becomes arelatively simple matter to maintain proper heat balance at the wareintake end of the lehr tunnel in cases where one of the conveyors ||lcarries glassware of one weight and the other conveyor carries glasswareof a diiferent weight. Furthermore, since the gases withdrawn from thelehr tunnel by the fan 32 may be distributed as desired by adjusting theposition of the vanes 39 and 4|, it will be readily appreciated thateven without disturbing the adjustment of the various burners l8 and I9,

" it is possible'to control the distribution of heating effects bothlengthwise and crosswise of the lehr tunnel. The adjustable dampers 29asso elated with the flues 24 also materially assist in the obtainmentof the desired heat distribution.

As compared to a single conveyor covering the full width of the lehrtunnel, the use of two conveyors permits handling of two classes of waresimultaneously, one of which may be heavy pieces occupying relativelylittle belt area but requiring a long annealing time and the other ofwhich may consist of thin pieces requiring only a short annealing cycle.It will be obvious that a single conveyor carrying such a composite loadwould have to be run at low speed in order to give the required timecycle for the heavy ware. The low belt speed would, of course, seriouslylimit the amount of light ware that could be put through the lehr and,moreover, the long annealing cycle then applied to the light ware wouldin many cases conveying glassware therethrough, two parallelly arrangedflues one below each conveyor and extending lengthwise of the tunnel,means forming two chambers one for each conveyor crosswise thereofadjacent the ware intake end of the tunnel, burners individual to saidchambers and to said flues for discharging hot combustion gasesthereinto, means for withdrawing gases from the tunnel and fordelivering the same to said flues and chambers, means for controllingthe amount of withdrawn gas delivered to the respective flues andchambers, and each of said flues and chambers having outlets openinginto the tunnel for discharging the gases into the latter.

2. The combination specified in claim 1, characterized by the burnersfor the said chambers being of greater capacity than the burners for theflues.

3. The combination specified in claim 1, char acterized by meansindividual to the respective flues for controlling the outflow of gasesfrom their said outlets.

4. The combination specified in claim 1, characterized by each fluebeing substantially as wide thereof between the ware intake end oi! thetunnel and the respective fines, burners individual to said chambers andto said flues ior discharging hot combustion gases thereinto, means forwithdrawing gases from the upper portion of the tunnel and fordelivering the same to the respective chambers and flues, and each 01said chambers and flues having outlets opening into the a tunnel fordischarging gases into the latter.

6-121 combination, a iehr tunnel, means for conveying glassware throughthe tunnel. two flues arranged side by side below said means andextending lengthwise oi the tunnel from the were intake end of thetunnel, means forming two chambers arranged end to end crosswise oi thewaste tunnel adjacent the ware intake end thereof, burners individual tosaid chambers and to said fines for discharging hot combustion gasesthereinto, means for withdrawing gases from the upper portion of thetunnel and for delivering the same under pressure to the respectivechambers and fiues, and each of said flues and chambers having outletsopening into the tunnel for discharging gases into the latter.

7. In combination, a lehr tunnel, two independently operable conveyorsinside of the tunnel for conveying glassware therethrough, and meansincluding two chambers each extending approximately half way across thetunnel from opposite sides thereof Jor establishing heating zonesthrough which the conveyors pass.

8. In combination, a iehr tunnel, two independently operable conveyorsinside of the tunnel for conveying glassware therethrough, andindependently controllable means below each conveyor for dischargingheating gases into the tunneL,

CARROLL CONE.

